


Behind Blue Eyes

by captainamergirl



Category: General Hospital, Port Charles
Genre: Crossover one shot, F/M, Jaren - Freeform, Wishful Thinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-18
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2020-09-06 16:48:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20294770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainamergirl/pseuds/captainamergirl
Summary: Everything she'd ever wanted.





	Behind Blue Eyes

"How can you say he’s the one when he’s never brought you a bouquet of roses; nevermind a diamond tennis bracelet?” Her best friend Eve Lambert asks as they stand at the hub during a lull in their shift.   
  
Karen simply smiles. “Because Eve, when I’m with him, he makes me feel like I’m the only woman in the world. He makes me feel like I can do anything. Most of all, he makes me feel safe. And that’s all I need. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”   
  


* * *

  
  
They’ve been in bed for hours. Jason has taken the night off from the warehouse; entrusting Cody Paul with the job of bringing in the shipments from the docks. Karen is spent; a light sheen of sweat is on her skin, making it appear almost glittery in a shaft of pale moonlight. When Jason snakes his hand under the covers, she giggles. “Stop, Jason. I don’t think I can go another round. I don’t think I’ll even be able to walk after all of this!”   
  
He just smiles at her mysteriously and finally produces a small, black velvet box from beneath the duvet. “Hey, where did that come from?” She asks, eyes impossibly wide. “Nevermind … Is that - is that what I think it is?” He just opens it for her. Her breath catches in her throat. A beautiful diamond ring sparkles up at her. “Jason, I -”   
  
He reaches for her hand, gently brushing her fingers with his. “Karen, I’m not very good at this kind of stuff… I don’t know how to say everything that I’m feeling … But ever since we got together … Back together after all of these years… I’ve been happy… I’ve felt like I found my home again… A place I can come to and know I’ll always be welcome... I love you… My sons love you … I want a life with you… I want to keep finding my home in your beautiful eyes … Will you marry me?”   
  
Karen immediately throws her arms around Jason’s neck, tears wetting his throat. “Yes! Yes, Jason, yes, I’ll marry you!”   
  
He chuckles. “You don’t want to think about it first?”   
  
She shakes her head. “No, no. Why should I? I’ve known what I’ve wanted for so long… Ever since I came back to town… Ever since that first night we spent together… I know where I belong .... Who I belong with … And it’s you, Jason. It’s always going to be you.”   
  
They kiss. It’s urgent; frantic. Karen reaches for Jason, pulling him down on top of her. He smiles into her mouth, murmuring, “I thought you were too tired for more.”   
  
She squeezes his left bicep as she admires her engagement ring. “Not too tired for celebration sex… Make love to me, Jason.”   
  


* * *

  
  
Jason already knows he and Karen belong together. The choice to propose to her was an easy one, and telling Jake and Danny delights both of them to no end, especially Danny who is sure this means lots and lots of wedding cake - hopefully the chocolate kind! While Jason is in the kitchen making sandwiches for their lunch, he can hear his fiancée and sons laughing together at some silly joke and he finds himself smiling. There was never any doubt in his mind that Karen will make a great stepmother for them, but this only reconfirms it. They adore her. He adores her. He doesn’t remember her from when he was Jason Quartermaine, but he knows her as Jason Morgan and it means everything to him.   
  


* * *

  
  
“Are you crazy, Karen? Have you lost your damn mind?” Scott rages as he storms uninvited into her and Jason’s apartment one afternoon. Karen is sitting on the sofa looking at bridal catalogues and Jason is sitting beside her, just looking at her. “Then the gossip around town is true? You’re marrying this - this ingrate?”   
  
Karen and Jason both jump up when Scott busts in. Scott goes to accost Jason and Karen tries to jump between them. Scott lands one sucker-punch but only because Jason doesn’t want to fight the older man. He is Karen’s father, for whatever that’s worth. “You can’t marry him, Karen! Don’t you care what he does for a living? Don’t you care that he’s best friends with Sonny Corinthos - the same man who treated you like a cheap whore?”   
  
Karen’s mouth opens in a speechless “O” of horror and this time, Jason does react. He pushes Scott towards the door. Scott tumbles backwards and falls; smacks his head against the wall. He is screaming now about abuse and having Jason hauled to jail for assault and asking how can Karen overlook her lover’s propensity for violence as Karen is damn near sobbing her eyes out. Karen just turns and runs into the bedroom and locks the door as Jason forcibly shows Scott out of the apartment.   
  


* * *

  
  
Jason has just barely managed to coax a tearful Karen from the bedroom when the police show up with an arrest warrant. Detective Cruz Rodriguez and his girlfriend, Commissioner Jordan Ashford, haul Jason away in handcuffs as Karen stares after them in disbelief. Karen has promised she’ll come to the station and bail him out. Jason told her she shouldn’t do that - that she shouldn’t have to choose between him and her father, but she only shook her head. There’s no choice, in her mind, right or wrong, there’s no choice. She will always and forever, choose Jason. He’s the man who’s always stood beside her. Scott… Well, she never really forged a bond with him; no matter how hard they tried, they just never really clicked. It was just too late for them. She hates how he tries to swoop in every once in awhile and micromanage her life. She knows he loves her, but sometimes it’s not enough. It’s just not enough... When she gets to the police station, Scott is waiting at the entrance, having expected her. They exchange heated words. Scott begs her to see the error of her ways. “I love Jason, Scott,” Karen says. “He’s a good man, no matter what you think. No matter who he works for her.” Then she pushes past her father and goes to see what she can do to help Jason out of this predicament.   
  


* * *

  
  
Karen is informed that Jason will spend the weekend in lockup since court is adjourned and Scott won’t drop the charges. She is disheartened and feels incredibly sick. In fact, more than once, she finds herself fighting nausea and dizziness. She heads back to the apartment and slumps onto the sofa. She lies there fighting the need to vomit for a good hour before the doorbell rings. She wants to call out  _“go away, just go away”,_ sure it’s a proselytizer, or just some equally unwanted guest, but she can’t even manage that. Instead, she just lays there in the semi-darkness.   
  
“Karen,” a familiar voice calls from the other side of the door. “Karen, it’s Carly!” Jason’s best friend is here. Great. Just great. The two women have not exactly always seen eye to eye on account of the fact that Carly seems to think she knows Jason better than anyone, and in a way, she does, although Karen would never admit that. “Open the door,” Carly says. “Come on. Jason called me and asked me to come over and check on you. He’s worried about you spending the whole weekend alone.”   
  
Karen sighs, says, “I’m a big girl,” but she hauls her body - which feels achy and oh-so-heavy - off the sofa. She moves over to the door. As soon as she opens it, Carly tells her she looks like crap. “Gee, thanks, Carly. You look truly lovely yourself.”   
  
Carly makes herself at home and they talk about what’s going on with Jason. Carly calls Scott a piece of garbage. Karen can’t find it in herself to defend her father right now. She is far too upset with him. Carly tells Karen she will order them a pizza because Karen needs to eat something. Karen’s stomach roils just at the mere thought of eating and she makes a run for the bathroom. She makes it to the toilet right on time. When she returns, Carly rolls her eyes at Karen. “Oh god. Please tell me you’re not.”   
  
Karen hugs her tee-shirt tightly to her body. “What are you talking about?” She asks self-consciously. “You’re a doctor, Karen. Surely you would know if you’re pregnant or not.”   
  


* * *

  
  
“Carly, this is totally stupid! I am  _not_ pregnant!” Karen snaps even as Carly pushes her into the bathroom as soon as they return from a jaunt to the corner drugstore to pick up not one, not two, but three home pregnancy tests. She pounds on the door but Carly stubbornly holds it closed. Karen is too tired and weak from nausea to fight her anymore.   
  
“Take the damn tests!” Carly snaps back. “Jason has a right to know if he’s going to be a dad again.”   
  
Karen rolls her eyes. “And if he is, this concerns you how …?”   
  
Carly sniffs. “If it concerns Jason, it concerns me. We’re best -”   
  
Karen shoves down her jeans. “Bestest best friends. I get it.” She sits on the toilet. She takes the three tests and anxiously lays them out on the counter. In five minutes, she’ll know she’s not pregnant. Or she will know she is. But that’s silly. She can’t be pregnant. Can she? Now that she thinks about it, she  _is_ a little late. A couple of weeks late, actually… And she and Jason have been “celebrating” their engagement like bunny rabbits so it’s entirely possible that she is pregnant … It’s just the timing … it’s not right. Jason’s in jail. Sure, he won’t be in jail forever - hopefully - but he shouldn’t have to find out something like this behind bars. And her father - Scott will never let her hear the end of this. Plus, she and Jason discussed having kids, but not so early in their relationship. They’ve been together for less than a year.   
  
She bites her lip. “Are you done?” Carly calls.   
  
“Yes, yes, I peed, Master,” Karen retorts.   
  
“God, you’re extra bitchy tonight. It’s gotta be the hormones.”   
  
Karen doesn’t reply at first. Then, “Carly, can you … Can you look at the results for me?” She asks.   
  
“Depends. Are you dressed?”   
  
Karen growls. “Yes, I'm dressed. Please come in here.”   
  
Carly opens the door and walks inside. She moves over to the bathroom counter and peeks at each test. Karen watches Carly’s expression. She has the original poker face, betraying nothing. Karen is almost convinced she is not pregnant, until Carly turns to her and says, “Well, it’s official. Jason has another mouth to feed.”   
  


* * *

  
  
Karen spends a sleepless night tossing and turning in her bed, hand pressed to her flat stomach, wondering how and when she will tell Jason about this pregnancy and if he will be happy or not. Carly is asleep in the living room and Karen can hear her snoring loudly which she feels oddly triumphant about. She told the blonde to go home but Carly would not listen.   
  
At six a.m., Carly stalks into the room, throws open the blinds and nearly burns Karen’s retinas in the process.   
  
“Hey!” Karen protests. “What the hell?”   
  
Carly shrugs. “It’s time to get up. You need a shower because you really stink. You can’t go and see Jason looking and smelling like that.”   
  
Karen lifts herself onto her elbows. “Carly -”   
  
Carly shrugs. “You are going to see Jason,” she says in no uncertain terms. “And you are going to tell him about the baby; give him some hope that will get him through the weekend in that horrible place."   
  
Karen resents Carly; she really resents the hell out of her. “That’s not your decision to make, Carly!”   
  
“I know Jason and -”   
  
Karen holds up a hand to stop her. “Yes, yes, I know you do. Better than anyone.” She drags herself out of bed. “I’ll go to see Jason because he’s my fiancé, but I make no promises about what we’ll talk about. That’s our business. As for you, don’t you have a husband and a daughter at home?” Karen says pointedly.   
  
“Jax and Josslyn understand,” Carly says. Karen just shakes her head.   
  


* * *

  
  
By eight a.m., Karen is looking at Jason through Plexiglas. His eyes are dark and smoky and he looks tired but otherwise like his normal, handsome self. “Are you okay?” She asks.   
  
“Yeah, I’m okay… Are you?”   
  
Karen wishes she could touch him. She’d give anything to be able to touch him, to snuggle into the circle of strength that is his embrace. “Yes, yes, I’m okay. I’m just sorry you’re in here. I can try to talk to Scott … Get him to drop the charges but I don’t think -”   
  
Jason shakes his head. “No, don’t. I don’t want to cause any more tension between the two of you.”   
  
Karen sighs. “He was wrong to punch you. He had no right.”   
  
Jason sighs. “He thought he was protecting you. If I had a daughter, I’d want her marrying a better man than me, too.”   
  
Karen’s stomach flip flops. “Jason, don’t say that. You are a good man… You’re one of the best men I’ve ever known… And I love you. You’re a great father to Jake, to Danny, to any baby we might have, boy or girl.”   
  
Her fingers linger on her flat stomach and in that moment, she knows she’s going to do it - she’s going to tell him the truth about their coming child and not because Carly goaded her into it, but because she wants him to know. Let the chips fall where they may, and all of that.   
  
“Jason?” She whispers.   
  
“Yeah?"   
  
"I - I took a pregnancy test last night… More than one actually …”   
  
Jason’s beautiful azure eyes go wide. “You’re … pregnant?”   
  
She nods. “Yes. I know the timing kind of sucks but -” Jason smiles and gazes at her fingers splayed across her abdomen. “Wait. Are you happy about this?” She asks.   
  
“Yeah, I am,” he admits. “Are you?”   
  
“I am. I know we wanted to wait awhile but well, plans change,” she says. She moves her hand to the glass and Jason brings his own fingers up to meet hers on the other side. She imagines they can touch each other. She knows, soon enough, they will again.   
  


* * *

  
  
“So what did your dad say when you told him you were having a little girl?” Eve asks as she and Karen sit in the hospital cafeteria during their lunch hour. Karen touches her wedding ring which is super snug now. The wedding was beautiful, small and simple, just her, Jason, his sons... and Carly, of course.   
  
“That he didn’t understand why I wanted to saddle myself to a mobster for the next eighteen years … And then I said I was actually going to be with Jason  _forever,_ whether Scott liked it or not, but that if he ever wanted to see his granddaughter, he had better keep his opinions and his fists to himself."   
  
Eve’s eyes go wide in surprise. “And he agreed?”   
  
Karen smiles softly. “He said he would try and I believe he will.”   
  
Eve looks suitably impressed. “Wow, Kar, it looks like you got everything you wanted, huh?”   
  
Karen nods. “Yeah, I did… For the first time in my life, I feel complete. It has to be the most wonderful feeling in the whole world.”   
  
THE END. 


End file.
